Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Somewhat of a disclaimer: I'm writing this after watching the fourth episode of season 1, so there is still much of show left to watch. That stated, as a fan of the books and generally a purist when it comes to book adaptation to film, I am sadly not at all impressed with Amazon's attempt to make a buck off of Jordan's works. They only appeal to the masses and totally avoid the spirit of the books (Robert Jordan's intent) in so doing. TL,DR: Amazon could have made this so, sooo much better. LOTR did so well because of the trueness to the story. If Amazon learns anything from all the one star reviews on this series they will keep LOTR on Prime (the next big upcoming fantasy series) in the spirit of Tolkien. WARNING: If you are a fan of the books you will not appreciate how many silly, unnecessary changes the director introduced into this story. It saddens me because there is **so** much material with which to work, but they threw many good plot points away to meet their wokeness quotas and GLAAD moments instead of staying true to cannon. The following are some of the changes I've noticed in the first four episodes: * No Lews Therin prologue. * The books make it clear the Dragon will be a male champion of the Light. This series says 'it' will be man OR woman. I have NO IDEA why this change was made other than a guess that Amazon wanted more female inclusion to the story... If this is why the change was made it's certainly an absurd one. There are more women in the books than men...and many of them hold positions of power. Think: The white tower (which is full of powerful people in the world - Aes Sedai - who are women), Morgase Trakand (Queen of Andor), the women's circle in the two rivers, the wisdoms of the two rivers (exclusively women), etc. * Perrin Aybara was not married in the books, in this series he is married and ends up murdering his wife in the first episode. The only reason I can see Amazon would have added this inconsistency is to show why Perrin will not want to commit to Faile later on in his life. This is an unnecessary addition - Perrin could simply say he does not want to commit because he's concerned for Faile's safety. Enough said. * Why change the number of Tar Valon from three (in the books) to four (in this series)? What value does it add to the viewer? I guess this would have to be an aspect of the logical component of changing the Dragon from a male hero of the light to a male or female hero. But again - this is an unnecessary change! As described before, women are already powerful and included all throughout Jordan's work. Why change the Tar Valon count on a whim? * Thom Merrilin should have been introduced in the first episode. They *somehow* forgot to include the colorful patched cloak characteristic of a gleeman and his famous mustaches. * Lan is supposed to have blue eyes; not look like a samurai. * Elyas Machera has so far been left out of the plot entirely. At this rate I'm fairly certain he'll be skipped, which is not *that* bad since he's a relatively minor character. He was a cool character from the books, though. There are quite a bit of plot inconsistencies as well. Not worth mentioning in too much detail here. Closing thoughts: Amazon, why? Why adapt so much from the books? It's not *that* hard to stay canonical. You really let a lot of people down, which is showing in all the one start reviews. You completely polarized your audience into two camps: 1) People who have read the books and enjoy them and end up gravely disappointed with this show and 2) People who have no idea what the books say and are only here for a woke story. I hope Amazon will learn something from this series and make the LOTR on Prime as much in the spirit of Tolkien (which is captured in CANNON) as possible. Please don't ruin any more good fantasy series!